Character Creation Rants

On Creating a Shadowrunner

a Rant by Steven "Dog Boy" Warnock

You wanna know what I absolutely HATE about the pregenerated archetypes in the Shadowrun gamebook? Well, even if you don't want to know I'm going to tell you anyway. I hate how they're made. The designers ignore their own rules and they don't spend all the money.

On that first bit, my primary frustration is the new Street Samurai character on page 75(at least I think it's page 75. It wasn't numbered). Look at the man's Strength rating [5(7)]. Now, look down at his obvious cyberarms with their +2 Strength enhancement. Oddly enough, that's exactly the same number as the bonus on his base Strength. How can that be when the rules state that the base Strength of a human class cyberarm is 4? Shouldn't his Strength attribute read 5(6)? You know what I say to that? Frag 'em! If they can cheat at their own rules, so can we! Another game company has what they call their "Golden Rule" printed in every one of their game books. Is says, in effect, "We have your money now, so why should we care if you change the rules to suit your style of play or just your sense of style."

And speaking of money, I, being a person of stingy Scottish extraction, hate to see money wasted. Go to the back of the book and you'll find that the pre-made archetypes don't have much stuff, and there's money left over (divided by 10) and added to 3D6 x 100 nuyen. That sucks! I have never had money left over when I've created a character from scratch. Okay, there was one time, but I felt lazy that day and took the 10% of my remaining 1160 nuyen and just added it to 3D6 x 100 nuyen.

Here's where I give free advice to those who don't want it, so just shut up and listen. You might, I SAY, you might learn something, son! (That's a Foghorn Leghorn impression for you phillistines out there who have never watched a Warner Bros. cartoon.) Anyway, on with the advice: Remember that Golden Rule I mentioned earlier? You paid your gold; you can use whatever rules you want. If the rules work to your advantage, use 'em. If not, loose 'em. A small caveat here, if you will: clear your rule abuses with your gamer buddies, otherwise, they may disagree with that really super character you worked so hard to make and decide that he'd make a great barrier to hide behind when the Army sends the tanks in to kill you.

Have a clear concept in mind before you begin to create a character. This can make assigning priorities easier or more difficult depending on what you want (i.e. trying to make an elf with 90k nuyen resources is impossible). Starting with a concept also adds to the cool factor in roleplaying. Don't think, "I want a big fragger with a big gun who kills people." Think instead, "I liked that Marine sniper from 'Clear and Present Danger' and for fun I'll make him an ork." Or better yet try this idea: "How about a guy who is a pacifist and runs a soup kitchen in the Barrens but he used to be the most lethal assassin in the biz." That's exactly what a pal of mine was thinking when he created the pacifist ex-assassin called Damocles. See, a little thought boosts the cool factor way up.

Spend all your resources! Any money you have left over is divided by ten. That means you keep only ten percent of your money as cash. That's like taxes in reverse, and that sucks. I know, if you're thinking in terms of your concept, that you buy everything you need and you have money left over. What do you do? Re-check your priorities first and see if you can get along with less money. If not, try this: buy stuff you don't need or want, especially things with a high street index that you can ignore during character creation. Then, when you enter game play, give that stuff away to friends or NPC's. For example, Mr. Zeebub whacks some ninja who happens to be carrying an orichalcum katana weapon focus. Mr. Z takes the sword into his possession at that time even though he neither needs nor knows how to really use a katana. Some time later in another adventure, our little party of runners is introduced to a high mucky-muck in the yakuza. Mr. Z hands the sword over to the oyabun as a token of his esteem. That's a sword with a cool million nuyen, but Mr. Z has gained a contact worth gazillions of nuyen.

Here's another money spending idea: say you have a hunk of change left over and you don't know what to do with it. Buy yourself 400 rounds of APDS in heavy pistol even if you don't carry a gun while the street index is not in effect. Then, during the game dole out those armor piercing babies for street index prices or hide-saving favors. Buy more lifestyles. Buy more contacts. A variety of contacts makes you more useful during those legwork interludes that we all suffer through. Like my dear ole Mom likes to say, "Son, it ain't what you know, it's who you know...and what you know about them."

Skills. Like Xena says, "I have many skills." But you don't have that many skill points. Let your concept dictate the skills that you take. It don't make much sense for a decker to need to know how to fire an air cooled .50 caliber Browning machinegun, and it makes even less sense for a Street Samurai to need to know how to boot up an attack utility in the Matrix. There are four skills I give almost all the characters that I create: Pistols, Unarmed Combat, Athletics, and Stealth. This is basically what a runner on the go needs to know in order to defend themselves if they aren't smart enough to run the hell away when the shooting starts. Running away is a perfectly acceptable defensive tactic.

Now for a word with gamers like me, the kind who like to kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out: try something a little different from the usual gun-toting basket case you normally play called a street samurai. Play a kung-fu fightin' Adept, or a bow and arrow-toting post-modern Robin Hood, or something like a Ranger from Babylon 5 (stealth and a staff), or a ghillie-suited sniper sitting on a grassy knoll a mile from everybody like a god deciding who lives and who dies. Or, better yet, shock and amaze your gaming friends when you unveil your latest character, a missionary nun called Sister Mercy (just don't tell them she's a mage with a kick-ass list of combat spells, and they'll all believe you're really growing as a roleplayer).

That's it for this rant. Remember: watch your back, shoot straight, conserve ammo, never deal with a dragon, never trust an elf, and never, ever, no matter how drunk, stoned, or just plain stupid you are trust an Otter shaman who says, "Hey, I got an idea! It worked in the cartoon, it should work in real life, too, right?"